How to Build a Scalable SaaS Sales Process (From Scratch)

I know product-led growth (PLG) businesses are the rave in SaaS today but I still love sales-driven too.

Why?

Deal sizes are bigger, the quality of the customer is often better, the churn is lower, and the moats are deeper.

At the same time, building one is really hard because it involves getting your SaaS sales strategy right.

Building a scalable SaaS sales process is one of the toughest parts in building a sales-driven SaaS business.

So today, I’m going to walk you through the 3 key principles to build a scalable SaaS sales process you can grow faster. We will cover:

Tools
Pipeline
Sales Methodology

I’ve been an operator of both a sales-driven and PLG business and am here to tell you one is not better than the other, it just depends.

It depends on the type of business. The reality is, founders don’t get to pick which one they will be because depending on the market segment you’re going after, the severity of the problem, and competitive dynamics – the market pretty much dictates it for you.

Suppose you figure out sales-driven is for you. Now you need to figure out your sales process.

Principle #1: Tools

Sometimes it’s easy to over index on tools but in this scenario you want to have the right tools in place or the rest will be difficult.

With tools there are essentially three key platforms you need to support your sales process.

Your sales engagement tool (i.e. Mailshake). There are a ton out there (all good) so just pick one and move on.

This is how you will reach the people on your ICP. The sales engagement is predominately outbound.

Your marketing automation platform (i.e. Market or Hubspot). Pick one so you can properly collect inbound leads to nurture.

Your CRM platform (i.e. Salesforce or Hubspot). This will help you manage your sales process.

These are your core tools you will need to ensure you have a scalable SaaS sales process. Once you have the tools in place you next need to think about your pipeline.

Principle #2: Pipeline

I did a video on how to think about your pipeline number if you want to watch that.

You need to have a certain pipeline coverage. The rule of thumb is 3x to 5x pipeline coverage.

What this means is you need to have 3 or 5 times that pipeline. So if your goal this month is to close one deal and your average deal size is one dollar, that means in order to close a deal you need to have three to five deals in the pipeline.

Why?

Because you’re not going to close every deal. So to be on the safe size you need to have 3-5x in the pipeline. Beginners don’t know enough about this yet.

If marketing is not generating that amount of leads then I’m going to hire SDRs to do outbound so we get that coverage and have insurance.

How are you going to have this?

Inbound (ads and social)
Outbound (calls, email, FedEx)

Once you have these you can next enter into your sales process.

Principle #3: Sales Methodology

There are a few pieces you need in your sales methodology with the first being your sales deck. This is how you kick off discovery calls and engage. It outlines why you exist, the problem, and why you exist. It’s really your strategic narrative.
Another reason to have your manifesto is because it drives the sales deck. Helps all those pieces fall in place.

When you don’t your win rates will be low and deal sizes will drag on.

Next are to decide what your SaaS sales stages will be.

The more complex the product, the more decision makers there are, and the more stages there will be.

This next one might seem weird but you need your scripts. You might not have literal scripts but you need some structure on how to run say a discovery call or talking to procurement.

You need a play for each stage. Those are your scripts. These are your rules of engagement.

Next you need to establish your pricing strategy. You need to show your pricing in a compelling way and how your customer will get 10x ROI by purchasing.

The last piece is your legal terms. What are the legal terms? Usually it can cause you to lose a deal if you don’t have legal terms. Getting your legal agreements in order is super important.

In order to build a scalable SaaS sales process you need to have key components in place or you will get super overwhelmed, super fast. When you have these pieces in place you can then start to scale your SaaS business through a sales-driven model.

Be sure to watch the video below for more coverage on these principles.